K-On!'s story revolves around four Japanese high school girls who join their school's light music club to try to save it from being abolished. However, they are the only members of the club, and at first Yui Hirasawa has no experience playing musical instruments or reading sheet music.
Story & Characters
ROCK ON GIRLS!... Well thats what I would say if this series was a top notch series. Now now, its not as bad as my first
sentence seems to make it out to be. Let me explain in more detail...
This series main protagonist is Hirasawa Yui... well our supposed main protagonist, but after the first episode Hirasawa
is no longer considered the "main character". All of a sudden it goes from one to four main characters, all
being in the Light Music Club together. Question, what is the Light Music Club? Well when we see the word
"light", we think soft music... well this really isn't what the club was. The club turns out to be a band
of 4 (eventually a 5-group band as the story goes on), playing some high tempo rock music. Wait wait, so we got a
similiar series to Beck Mongolian Chop Squad? Not quite. For those not familiar with Beck, Beck is a series about a
prodigy guitarist who joins a rock band or another, etc etc, you get the picture. It was a music show. So with all the
trailers and the initial start of this series, thats what K-ON! was gonna be about? WRONG! The story majorly strays from
original plot about Hirasawa's uncanny ability to play the guitar and the band's dream to go to Budokan, and
goes off to just a story about friendship. I mean I can see that plot works, but they falsely advertised this anime. I
was expecting a nice music-related story like Beck where we would get some nice insight into the industry. Guess
not.
Instead of crying about what was lost, let me continue on to what they actually gave us. I'm actually surprised the
story was still pretty good. It wasn't great, but it didn't make me sick to my stomach every time I watched
one of the episodes. We got some pretty decent characters in here; the bassist/vocalist, who tries very hard to keep
everyone on task, Akiyama; the pianist/keyboard player, who always serves the delicious foods, Kotobuki Tsumugi (she
also provides the story's shoujo-ai element); the hyperactive drummer in which one would think she needs to be on
ADHD meds, Tainaka Ritsu; and lead guitar/vocalist who just can't stay on task for the life of her, Hirasawa
Yui.
Now I just listed off the primary 4 characters of the series up until Takano Azusa arrives. Not much to say about
Takano, but if I had to say something about her, just imagine a mini-Akiyama Mio. She literally is. The fun element to
her though is how every calls her Azu-nyan, which I have to admit was pretty funny when used in specific situations.
There's a small list of supporting cast, but unfortunately the supporting cast doesn't provide much extra to
the story. I mean seriously, they introduce Hirasawa's best friend from before she entered high school, yet the
best friend gets a low amount of screen time. You would think Hirasawa would hang out with her best friend more than
friends she just met. Lets not mention the fact that even Hirasawa's sister gets way more screen time than the best
friend yet Hirasawa's sister isn't even in high school. I see plenty of problems arising.
By the end of the story, I had some fun with this story, has it got very comedic throughout (I love my comedy), but it
strayed too far from the music-element portion. There's more episodes of them doing things non-music related than
anything music. So if you're expecting something like what Beck is, this isn't the anime you'll find it
in.
Last thing, its extremely MOE. If you're not a moe fan, or don't enjoy the comedy that comes with moe, this
also isn't one for you.
Rating: 6
Art
The art was good, that I say for sure. The motions were fluid and believable and there was nothing out of porportion in
comparison to the human anatomy. However I won't say it was great. The problem again lies in false advertisement.
Coming into this series my standards were set to mainly look at the instruments and the animation regarding instrument
use. Considering we didn't see too much of it and what parts we did see weren't long enough, I could've
give a fair judgement. The instruments themselves were nicely draw, but thats about it in regards to them. The vocalist
parts seemed okay, but again not enough footage to really judge. Its like the writers, director, and animation companies
were trying to make a music-related show without the instrument playing. How does that work?
I will say this, the art style fit the story nicely so I won't dock much points off this section.
Rating: 8
Sound
Music, the highlight of the series, for many obvious reasons. To be a music show you can't have bad music or else
you're just digging yourself a grave in the "bad series" cemetary. I quite enjoyed "Fuwa Fuwa
Time" and it did fit the (SPOILER ALERT) second to last episode very nicely during the concert. (END OF
SPOILER)
There were plenty of enjoyable, high tempo music, with a special addition that the voice actresses themselves did the
vocals for. That was a nice treat. If you readers go check out the various CDs that have been released, you can find
some pretty good songs sung by the voice actresses. Another favorite song of mine that was released on the Character
Singles is "Let's Go". If you don't watch the series, at least check out the music.
Last thing to say on this subject, one of the best ending song and ending animation came out of this series. The song
being "Don't say lazy". Worth listening to!
Rating: 9
Presentation
Overall out of a 13 episode series, unfortunately it wasn't a great one. Their goal was to go to Budokan, but they
settled for high school stage. I get the meaning behind it but it would've made the show better if they really did
go to Budokan. Look at it this way, if they changed the show into a 26 episode series, using the first 15 or so, getting
through high school while practicing and getting famous, then the last 10 or so, after graduation, getting to Budokan,
it would've stayed true to a music-related story. They spent so much time on non-music related activities like a
christmas party or studying, etc that the show didn't feel like it was related to music. Thats my major peeve with
this show and unfortunately, in my opinion, its what broke this series. Sure being moe is a good seller because alot of
people love moe and the shoujo-ai element made for some interesting enough scenes, but they tried too hard to be funny
that they forgot what the story was really about.
Now the argument can be made that the story was never suppose to be about music, but if thats the case, why advertise it
like it was about music? Plus why even include the Light Music Club to begin with. If it was just suppose to be about
the friendships and bonds made in high school, they could've made the club the Tea Club and changed it to a pure
slice-of-life anime. Guess they just wanted to confuse people more.
Again I won't deny the comedy in this series. As a fan of comedy myself I still found myself laughing at alot of
parts and enjoying the story for what it is. With that being said if you watch it without thinking too much, you can
enjoy it for the most part, but if you start thinking on this series, like about Budokan, you'll be disappointed. A
good enjoyable story, but lacked in any real continuing plot.
Rating: 6
Final Verdict
6.8333 (above average)
Reviewed by SaitoHajime101, Oct 13, 2009
